Commonweal

Diamond: A Struggle for Environmental Justice in Louisiana's Chemical Corridor by Steve Lerner

Introduction | Foreword by Robert D. Bullard | Review by Ruth Rosen | Book Order Information

Eco-Pioneers by Steve Lerner

Introduction

For years, the residents of Diamond, Louisiana, lived with an inescapable acrid, metallic smell -- the "toxic bouquet" of pollution -- and a mysterious chemical fog that seeped into their houses. They looked out on the massive Norco Industrial Complex: a maze of pipelines, stacks topped by flares burning off excess gas, and huge oil tankers moving up the Mississippi. They experienced headaches, stinging eyes, allergies, asthma, and other respiratory problems, skin disorders, and cancers that they were convinced were caused by their proximity to heavy industry. Periodic industrial explosions damaged their houses and killed some of their neighbors. Their small, African-American, mixed-income neighborhood was sandwiched between two giant Shell Oil plants in Louisiana's notorious Chemical Corridor. When the residents of Diamond demanded that Shell relocate them, their chances of success seemed slim: a community with little political clout was taking on the second-largest oil company in the world. And yet, after effective grassroots organizing, unremitting fenceline protests, seemingly endless negotiations with Shell officials, and intense media coverage, the people of Diamond finally got what they wanted: money from Shell to help them relocate out of harm's way. In this book, Steve Lerner tells their story.

Around the United States, struggles for environmental justice such as the one in Diamond are the new front lines of both the civil rights and the environmental movements, and Diamond is in many ways a classic environmental-justice story: a minority neighborhood, faced with a polluting industry in its midst, fights back. But Diamond is also the history of a black community that goes back to the days of slavery. In 1811, Diamond (then the Trepagnier Plantation) was the center of the largest slave rebellion in United States history. Descendants of these slaves were among the participants in the modern-day Diamond relocation campaign.

Steve Lerner talks to the people of Diamond, and lets them tell their story in their own words. He talks also to the residents of a nearby white neighborhood -- many of whom work for Shell and have fewer complaints about the plants -- and to environmental activists and Shell officials. His account of Diamond's 30-year ordeal puts a human face on the struggle for environmental justice in the United States.

Steve Lerner is Research Director of Commonweal, a health and environment research institute. He is the author of Eco-Pioneers: Practical Visionaries Solving Today's Environmental Problems (MIT Press, 1998).

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Foreword by Robert D. Bullard

Numerous studies have documented that African-Americans and other people of color in the United States are disproportionately impacted by environmental hazards. In the real world, all communities are not created equal. If a community happens to be poor, black, or located on the "wrong side of the tracks," it receives less protection than affluent white suburbs.

In this book, Steve Lerner chronicles an African-American community's struggle against environmental racism. Diamond, a tiny community in Norco, Louisiana, typifies a population under siege from chemical assaults. Clearly, racism influenced local land use, the siting of industrial facilities, the enforcement of environmental regulations, and where the Diamond residents live, work, play, and go to school.

Diamond uncovers a seamy and seldom-told side of the petrochemical industry. The Diamond residents, many of whom can trace their roots to descendants of slaves who assembled small parcels of land from the old Diamond Plantation and passed it on to subsequent generations, fought for decades to be relocated away from the sprawling Royal Dutch/Shell petrochemical plants. The Diamond community is sandwiched between the Shell/Motiva refinery and the Shell Chemical plant. Some residents' property lines are only 9 feet from the fenceline with Shell Chemical.

Dozens of small rural black communities, like Diamond, are on fencelines with chemical, nuclear, and petrochemical plants in Louisiana's Mississippi River Chemical Corridor-an area dubbed "Cancer Alley." Many of these all-black communities survived the challenges of the postslavery plantation and the "Jim Crow" era but have not survived the toxic chemical assault of nearby polluting industires. Toxic chemical assaults are not new for the Diamond community residents, who live in constant fear of toxic spills, explosions, and routine pollution from nearby chemical plants.

Before the "9/11" terrorist attack, Diamond residents experienced a form of "toxic terror" 24 hours a day and seven days a week. When (not if) chemical accidents occur, government and industry officials instruct residents to "shelter in place." In reality, locked doors and closed windows do not block the chemical assault on the nearby communities.

For decades, Margie Richard, her Diamond neighbors, and the Concerned Citizens of Norco complained about the foul odors, booming noise, perpetual light, and flaring from the Shell refinery. And for decades, Shell refused to buy them out and relocate the community. Ms. Richard took her struggle to congressional hearings in Washington, to the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva, and to the Netherlands (home of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group).

In June 2002, victory finally came when the Concerned Citizens of Norco and their allies forced Shell to agree to a buyout that allowed residents to relocate from the chemical facilities. In April 2004, Margie Richard was awarded the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize for her valiant and courageous actions.

Diamond provides a unique in-depth analysis of the day-to-day struggle of a fenceline community's pursuit of justice. The book is an important addition to the expanding literature on environmental justice in that it captures the "voices" and "spirit" of the community in detail so that the reader gets a sense of the conditions under which fenceline residents live and a real understanding of why they fight for relocation.

Robert D. Bullard, Director of Environmental Justice Resource Center
Clark Atlanta University

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Review

"Steve Lerner's story of Diamond, Louisiana, is one of the most remarkable tales that has ever been told about the environmental justice movement."
-- Ruth Rosen, Dissent Magazine   Read the entire review »


Learn more about the book at MIT Press »


Book Order Information

Anyone interested in purchasing Diamond can buy it through Commonweal (415) 868-0970 or through MIT Press (617) 625-8569 (344 pages, cloth, $27.95). Diamond can also be purchased online from MIT Press »

Other books by Steve Lerner are also available through Commonweal:

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